Knife crime: Coventry and Wolverhampton project receives £6m investment

A new multi-million pound project will be launched to tackle knife crime and gangs in Coventry and Wolverhampton.

Almost 7,000 knife incidents were recorded in the West Midlands last year - more than any region outside London.

The Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) will see gang members offered job and mentoring support.

West Midlands Police has received £2m from the government and a further £4m is to be used to recruit and train 24 officers.

The CIRV is an intervention programme designed to reduce gang violence and help those involved in gangs to live a life free from crime.

The project works with gang members to show them the consequences of the life they are choosing to lead and offering alternative pathways through mentoring, support and job opportunities, police said.

It has previously been run in the US, as well as Glasgow and Northamptonshire.

Ch Insp Daryl Lyon of West Midlands Police said the programme would "look at the issues that cause people to carry knives in the first place and accesses future opportunity for them."

"It engages with them 24 hours a day seven days a week," he added.

"So we've got a really complex solution coming to address the complex drivers that cause people to carry knives in the first instance."

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